'The Great Gatsby' at the Metropolitan Opera

'Great Gatsby' Falls Short As Opera

At the Metropolitan Opera

by Sally Scanlon

This production has closed.

Give them A for effort. Composer John Harbison and the forces of the Metropolitan Opera have gone all-out to turn F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, "The Great Gatsby," into a towering success. But like its protagonist, Jay Gatsby, the long-awaited new opera, ultimately fails, done in, in this case, by too little melodramatic action.

It begins promisingly. The overture creates an ominous, dark soundscape that gives way to a bright, appealing Twenties-style jazz tune. Tender, yearning chords cut in tentatively, gradually undermining, and then warring with, the jazz tune. Eventually both are suppressed by a return of the dark theme, and the curtain rises.

Unfortunately, the dramatic tension falls shortly thereafter. As my companion put it later, "too much tell, too little show." Despite two entertaining party scenes with appealing faux pop songs and fine performances throughout, the opera doesn’t catch fire until well into Act 2. By then some of the audience had left and this "stayer," for one, remained as much out of curiosity and in support of the artists as out of genuine interest in the music.

In the event, Act 2 proved more rewarding than Act 1. A quintet of mixed emotions for the major characters highlights Scene 3. The despairing sparring of the ill-fated mechanic, Wilson, and his unfaithful wife, Myrtle, proves riveting in Scene 4. And the musical and scenic darkness of the last scene offers an appropriately bleak finale.

Harbison is blessed in his interpreters. Conductor James Levine keeps his forces in balance and the pace taut, never rushing or drowning out his singers. The actor-singers are first-rate vocalists who look their roles and enunciate well enough that it is seldom necessary to look to the Met’s seatback titles to find out what they are saying. Jerry Hadley as Gatsy and Dawn Upshaw as Daisy project their mutual attraction believably and make the most of their character-delineating solos. The other leads are equally convincing: Dwayne Croft as the quietly observant Nick Carraway, Mark Baker as a gruff Tom Buchanan, Susan Graham as the jaded Jordan Baker, Richard Paul Fink as the desperate Wilson, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson as a searing Myrtle, the best-drawn character in the opera.

Newspaper critics faulted the libretto for much of the dramatic slackness. Composer Harbison wrote it himself, and they say he was too faithful to the novel. I can’t comment on that, because I read Gatsby too long ago to remember it well. (I purposely didn’t reread it beforehand so that I could approach the opera on its own terms.) But whatever the reason, the libretto is too drawn out. Instead of empathizing with the characters’ boredom, you just feel bored. And instead of being grabbed by the characters’ longings, you find yourself (Act 2, Scene 4 excepted) mainly appreciating the singers’ voices and vocal technique. Ironically, the one musical element that never fails to please is the neo-Twenties music. Harbison’s evocation of Jazz Age pop works every time thanks to his appealing tunes and Murray Horwitz’s sprightly song lyrics.

That said, the orchestra under James Levine’s conducting plays beautifully. The women’s costumes are delicious, and the lighting contributes mightily to creating the heat the characters complain about, as well as the longing Gatsby feels for the ultimately unattainable Daisy.

Note: "Gatsby" may return to the Met's repertory in the future.

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'Great Gatsby' Falls Short As Opera

At the Metropolitan Opera